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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s the season of giving — why not give yourself the gift of space? We’re fully into the holiday season now, a time of celebration, and a chance to catch some great sales. So, how do you avoid overwhelming limited storage capacity when bringing new stuff into the home? Here are some practical and charitable ways to be a little lighter and brighter this holiday season.
Closets & Clothing

Establish a rule that when a new coat, shirt, or pair of shoes comes into the house, an old one must go in the give-away pile.

The wintertime is sock-time–go through the sock drawer. Look for those with holes or without a match, or those that never fit right, and get rid of them.

Instead of taking the sweaters from off-season storage and squeezing them into the closet, take a moment to look through them. Some are likely well-worn or ill-fitting, or haven’t made it off the shelf in years. Those can go into the give-away pile, leaving more room in the closet for the ones you enjoy wearing.

Once everything has been sorted through, take stock of what you have and need. Do you need more or less sock storage—maybe sweaters can be hung on pant hangers instead of folded on shelves (or visa versa). Bins and baskets can be great ways to store socks or gloves, hats, and scarves as well. If a total closet make-over is needed, you can call a professional closet designer to develop a tailored solution.

Coat Closet & Outerwear

Take a serious look through the coat closet. Which of the coats never got worn last year? Probably it never fit right, or is just not your style. Put it in the giveaway pile.

Sort through the winter-wear drawer. Most people have more hats, gloves, and scarves than they wear. If your favorite style gloves are worn out, now is the time to buy a new pair, before the stores are out of stock. This way, you can also find room for that gorgeous new scarf.

Look through the winter shoes, boots, slippers, booties. Again, now is the time to replace that worn out favorite style with something new that you love, and will wear all winter.

The winter shoes often get stored near the door in a pile. Consider the possibilities of a mud room with customized shoe storage. Once the snow starts falling, this could also accommodate the wet coats, hats and gloves.

Charities & Giving

Take a look at the give-away pile and smile! This is all stuff that cluttered your space. If you take it away, you can find the clothes you love, and buy replacements for worn out favorites without worrying about where to put them.

Best of all, there are so many charities that can take away your give-away items. There are veteran’s organizations, coat drives for the homeless, clothing drives for kids in need. You can clear your space and help people – a very good result.

https://symmetryclosets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Updated-Symmetry-Logo_010719-300x128.jpg00adminhttps://symmetryclosets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Updated-Symmetry-Logo_010719-300x128.jpgadmin2018-11-05 15:47:462019-05-10 15:40:49It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s springtime!

The changing of the seasons is a wonderful time of new adventure and growth. As the weather changes, the flowers grow, the trees leaf out–and suddenly we stop wearing sweaters, winter coats and turtlenecks. This year, we pulled out shorts and tee shirts in April!
The Pros advise not to rush into packing away all your cold weather items all at once. When you feel the weather taking a turn towards the bright side start putting your stuff away slowly. Take your time to carefully sort through and organize what will go where.

Lavender is a natural alternative to keeping your storage items fresh over the next six months.

The idea of course is to make sure you don’t waste space storing stuff that’s out of fashion, doesn’t fit right, or never suited your personal style. We’re talking about maximizing your storage space, and taking care of your clothing and other cold weather items – and those things need some TLC if you want to get good use out of them again next year.

1) Protect your clothes naturally – with lavender!

Moth balls are stinky, and toxic too. If you really want an effective way to keep your clothing over the off-season you can pick up lavender-scented sachets to place in with the clothes that you’re storing away. You could also use dried lavender with the clothes that you’re packing away. Either way, the lavender is a natural insect deterrent & will keep your clothes from smelling musty next season.

2) Find off-season shoe storage – basement or second bedroom?

You don’t want to look at boots in the summer (or sandals in the winter)–they take up prime closet space. And who wants to look at Fleece boots when you’re picking out a sundress? The Pros recommend to avoid using cardboard boxes for storage – the cardboard is acidic and the glue tends to attract insects and pests. You’re better off with storage specifically designed to store your shoes or boots, like plastic boxes or a protective boot bag.

Use a boot butler to hang your off-season boots and don’t forget the shapers to keep the material looking its best.

3) Tall boots need support

Those beautiful tall boots shouldn’t flop over all summer–it’ll cause the leather to crease & crack. Invest in a set of boot shapers.

4) Dry clean

Make sure to dry clean sweaters and other dry-clean-only items even if only worn once (the moths will know)–and take the dry cleaner bags off! Otherwise your clothing can get stained from the chemical BHT in the plastic itself.

5) Hangers (a two-fer Tip)

Invest in the Huggable Hangers–they’ll actually create more space in the closet. A great organizer tip, when you hang your clothing for the season, turn all the hangers away from you–when you wear something, turn the hanger toward you. You’ll know what you wore & what you never wore all season!